Friday, April 01, 2016

Free On-Campus Abortions: Calif. Students' Demand

The Associated Students of University of California at UC Berkeley unanimously passed a senate resolution forcing taxpayers to fund abortion services on campus because abortions are "necessary and relevant in student life" and "it’s important for students to do well academically."

“When medication abortion is not available at UHS (University Health Services), students who are seeking an abortion face financial, time, and travel constraint burdens that create negative impacts on academic performance and mental health. . . . Abortion is a common health-care service and access to abortion is necessary and relevant in student life.”-- Senate Resolution 69

“The resolution does not expect students to pay for these services as I, and those who voted for it, believe that health is a right not a privilege. The university should be providing this right to all students.”-- Aanchal Chugh, Student Senator

"UC Berkeley's University Health Services (UHS) fully supports women's access to the full spectrum of contraception, emergency contraception, abortion and other pregnancy alternatives."-- Roqua Montez, Executive Director of Communications, University of California in Berkeley (UCB)

The bill argues that inaccessibility to abortion is a violation of women’s rights and impedes academic progress. Since, the bill suggests, women make up a majority of the undergraduate student population, it is only just they be provided with any means necessary to eradicate whatever may get in the way of academic success.

The bill employs several statistics to reinforce its logic, including things like: women aged 18-24 account for 44 percent of all abortions in the United States, one in four women will have an abortion by age 30, and women make up 52 percent of UCB’s undergraduate population.

“I believe the University should reorganize funds from the administration's paychecks to university health services. Many of the administrators at UC Berkeley receive more than generous paychecks while they continue to put student health on the backburner,” Chugh said. “This resolution is demanding that the university reconsider and reprioritize its funding. Instead of investing money into the administration's paychecks, the university should be investing in students' health and safety needs.”

Most college health centers provide basic reproductive care: contraception—including IUDs—pap smears, STD testing, and pregnancy counseling. But very few colleges offer on-site medical abortions, though it would make sense. Forty-three percent of college-aged women 18-24 years old will get an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and access is crucial. Currently, there's only one clinic that provides abortions within walking distance to the UC Berkeley campus. An attempt to walk to the two nearest Planned Parenthood clinics would take you well over an hour.

A 2015 survey of gynecologic services available on 152 university campuses by American College Health Association (ACHA), an advocacy organization for advancing the health of college students, reports that only two institutions provide on-site medical abortions. That's 1.3 percent. Even more troublingly, of all the institutions surveyed, only 65.8 percent explicitly provide referrals for abortion services.